Vitalik Buterin claws back crypto community's right to redefine 'inflation'
Buterin’s Farcaster post debated Axios’ definition of inflation by insisting that the crypto community had already established the redefinition of the word. “[...] we already decided that it now just means ‘increase in the total supply of a currency'.”
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, has asserted that the crypto community has already “claimed the right to butcher” the word inflation.
Buterin’s comments come as a response to an X post by digital media company Axios, which stated that the word “inflation” now means high prices rather than rising costs.
Despite the Axios post’s “tongue-in-cheek” nature — as X Community Notes (CN) suggests — CN clarified that “the definition of inflation is not changing.”
Buterin’s Farcaster post debated Axios’ definition of inflation by insisting that the crypto community had already established the redefinition of the word.
“[...] we already decided that it now just means ‘increase in the total supply of a currency'.”
Buterin’s rebuttal to the Axios post found support from other Farcaster users, including ex-Coinbase employee Binji.eth.
Traditionally, inflation refers to the rise in the general price level of goods and services, which reduces purchasing power because money is worth less.
However, the semantic shift in culturally redefining inflation — as described by Buterin — suggests that ongoing global inflation results from the “total supply” essentially being uncapped.
